New this week for social scientists.
See also our women and gender studies news
http://www.scoop.it/t/women-and-gender-studies?r=0.008061935019767708#post_3994776192
Media studies news.
http://www.scoop.it/t/media-reports-this-month
Social care costs.This week a cap was announced. See our links to free resources
On this topic: a new site for consumers – Find me good care from Social care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) provides a searchable database of good care providers by postcode. It also has news and advice.
North Korea stages weapons test in defiance of international nuclear weapons testing bans.
The IAEA is the international authority covering nuclear issues. Its website has factsheets, statements and reports on North Korea's nuclear capacity.
The library has an online catalogue which provides references to some relevant publications.
Nuclear.files has a timeline of key events in nuclear
history It includes syllabi and course collections for teachers.
There is also a library of treaties and agreements.
Another good educational site is the The Alsos library which is a component of the National Science Foundation’s National Science Digital Library. This has bibliographic references to a range of material covering all aspects of nuclear issues.
It offers links to a series of resources on the North Korea Nuclear weapons programme from established think tanks (mainly USA based)
The Federation of American Scientists nuclear program monitors weapons worldwide. See country files on capabilities.
The section on North Korea has reports from 2012.
Horsemeat scandal
Horsemeat investigation: Written statement by Owen Paterson
This is a written ministerial statement by Environment Secretary Owen Paterson on the investigation of horse meat in food products.
also published this week Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee - Eighth Report
There is also a parliamentary investigation of contamination of beef products. Get the latest minutes and reports here.
The Food Standards Agency website has a timeline and papers on its horsemeat investigation.
DEFRA has latest government statements and reports on its website
European Food Safety Agency press statement.
EU press releases on meeting about problem.
Official EU pages on food safety regulation.
Soil Association news feed includes summaries of news stories about the scandal.
Sustain web has publications and reports on local community initiatives to grow and provide healthy food.
Pope resignation.
Official Vatican website
Has a press release of the historic resignation.
The Poynter institute has produced a useful collection of quick facts figures and links for journalists about papal resignations.
If you want to find out data about the Catholic Church try these resources.
The Global Catholic Population
New data and analysis from the Pew Forum on Religion Public Life. Found out which countries currently have the most Catholics and the change in share of Catholics between 1910 and 2010
British Religion in numbers has useful facts on religious practice and belief in the UK. BRIN is based at the University of Manchester. It also has an excellent directory of links to other data sources relating to religion worldwide. The Association of Religion Data Archives offers historical and statistical patterns both on the declining number of Catholic churches and clergy members in the United States, as well as county-level data on the distribution of Catholic adherents across the country.
Access to Middle East and Islamic resources.
Useful blog highlighting open access resources in this area.
Key emphasis upon journals covering all subject areas.
Created by USA libraries.
Find out the latest news about what you can get for free. Covers, culture, history, civilisation.
Which? University site
Launched by the consumer body. Get advice on courses and on individual universities in UK higher education. Includes student viewpoints.
Other alternatives.
The Sunday Times has a free associated website based on its good university guide where you can view and compare the rankings. Covers undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
Unistats
Official site maintained by UCAS. It enables you to search and compare information about universities and colleges in the UK, and the subjects they offer. It includes results from the National Student Survey which measures levels of student satisfaction.
ACCESS: YouTube
Henshaws College and JISC launch an accessible YouTube website. See details of the modifications on the jisctech blog. the aim is to remove unnecessary distractions and make it easier for students with learning difficulties and problems accessing websites easier to search for content.
Languages: The State of the Nation
Demand and Supply of Language Skills in the UK
Download the full text of this British Academy report from here. The 1996 page report covers.
the extent of the demand for language skills, language skill demand and industry, UK capacity in foreign languages, the social and geographic spread of language skills
There are also a number of other publications on languages in HE on the website.
State of the union 2013
The Brookings Institution provided coverage of the event.
Its Facebook page highlighted the best features.
and they were involved in Twitter live tweeting.
The National Academies have produced a guide to the state of the Union for American citizens. Great starting point for those wanting a gentle introduction. It has a transcript.
Plus links to lots of full text academic books published by NAP covering the topics mentioned in the address.
To End on a light note:Valentine’s Day
Guardian valentines. see some historic features from the Guardian archive.
Historic Valentine’s Day images from the Library of Congress.
The British Postal Museum and archive has some examples of Valentine’s Day telegrams on its blog.
They also have a Flickr selection . Finally the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries
has a nurse romance collection of novels on its archive. se a selection of covers - useful for social science research into images of women nurses!
Heather Dawson
LSE Library